Real-time process for defining, processing and delivering a highly customized contact list over a network

ABSTRACT

A real-time, interactive system and method of building a list of contact records, such as a mailing list, on a computer network based on selected criteria. A list specification is generated, which may include interactively specifying a geographically defined area for which a contact list is desired including receiving user input, and interactively selecting a product from a plurality of products and a threshold score for the product including receiving user input. The list specification may be transmitted over the computer network to a server where the contact list is built in real-time based on the list specification. If a set of characteristics of the contact list, such as number of records generated or cost, are approved by the user, the contact list is transmitted to a user-specified node on the computer network. The list specification may be stored in memory for reuse by a business, such as a chain of stores. This feature provides a way to easily regenerate new and updated contact lists at future dates for all or a subset of the stores by accessing updated source databases without having to respecify the list every time a fresh list is required.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

Aspects of the present invention generally relate to the real-timedefinition, processing and delivery of contact address lists over anetwork. More particularly, embodiments of the present invention relateto selecting contact records for any geography of any size or shape thathave a propensity to consume a specific product or service, anddelivering these records with selected information appended, such as acontact name and a consumption propensity score, in a real-timeenvironment over a public network such as the Internet.

2. Description of the Related Technology

Traditionally, the process of selecting and extracting records from anational contact list of 100 million plus records was limited to batchprocesses on large mainframe computers housed at companies such asACXIOM, MetroMail and Polk. These lists were mainly used for directmarketing applications such as direct mail and telemarketing. Thesehistorical tape-oriented databases contained large records. They weretypically several hundred bytes in size and contained separate fieldsfor name, contact addresses: (USPS mailing address, city, state, ZIPcode; telephone number, e-mail address, etc.) and various levels ofgeography, household and individual attribute data like age, income,presence of children, etc., as well as other data like geodemographiccodes and composite social economic scores.

Based on the extremely large size of the database and sequentialprocessing requirements, the definition of list selects and appendsinvolved multiple people and took several days, since processing wasusually organized around a large weekly batch run that processed allpending orders. The resultant list was usually only available onmagnetic media such as nine-track tape that was then mailed or deliveredby courier to the mail fulfillment house.

Custom geography selects like radius and polygons were not available.This factor, in conjunction with the long turn-around times, limited theusefulness of these lists for non-direct marketing contact applicationslike public safety notification of toxic spills, etc.

Product scoring models were limited to large mailers like Readers Digestthat could afford to build a custom usage model using the attribute dataon these files as independent variables. The list provider would thenprogram this model and use it in the list select process. The buildingand programming of these models was usually a multi-month process andwas a minimum of several hundred thousand dollars in costs.

In the mid 1990's, a CD based product called “Pro CD” made availablekey-entered data from the national white pages. Pro CD packaged andmarketed the resulting database on eight regional CD-ROMs in retailcomputer stores, like Comp USA, for approximately $100 for both thesoftware and the data. Initially, the software was primarily oriented todirectory assistance applications. When the user typed in a name andcity, the product would return a list of names, address and phonenumbers. Later generations of the product had the address records UnitedStates Postal Service (USPS) ZIP coded, appended 5-digit ZIP codelatitude and longitudes coordinates, and provided easy to use mailingand telephone number list select and extract software. The softwaresupported geography selects such as State, NPA, NPANXX, City Name, ZIPcode or an approximate radius around a selected record in the database.All the records for the same 5-digit zip code were assigned the samelatitude and longitude coordinate, which made it easier to select alarge radius like 25 miles rather than having to provide a large list ofzip codes. There was no ability to assign a particular latitude andlongitude and then generate records around this latitude and latitudepoint. This lack of geographic precision eliminated applications likedirect mail to custom pizza store delivery polygons or mailing to highpotential Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) customers with a high propensityto own a computer that live more than 2.5 miles from their telephoneswitch. DSL connectivity is currently limited to about 2.5 miles from atelephone company central office switch.

The contact list functionality and quality of the Pro CD product waslimited by four factors. The first was that telephone book addresses aregenerally incomplete since many listings contain only a name and noaddress, secondary addresses like apartment number are rarely provided,and it is a difficult process to accurately translate a 7-digittelephone number and a partial street address and determine the correctNPA (area code) and city. These white page address deficiencies resultin a mailing list with poor USPS deliverability as well as a deliverablelist with very sparse coverage. A USPS mail deliverable contact list isa list where all the records are deliverable by the USPS to theaddresses shown on the list. The second limitation was that there was noattribute date on the database to perform any meaningful selects. Thethird factor was the white pages for a given directory are publishedonly once a year and about twenty percent of telephone listing changeevery year, which means that many records on the database are out ofdate. This high rate of white page listing changes coupled with thepreviously described correct NPA assignment issues and a large number ofNPA splits occurring after the white pages were printed also made thequality of telemarketing or telephone number contact lists generated bythe product somewhat less than desirable. The fourth factor is it is amessy and time consuming process required to manage an eight CD-ROMdatabase on a PC that normally only has a single CD-ROM drive.

In the last few years, the major contact list suppliers like ACXIOM,MetroMail and Polk have made significant improvements in their databasequality, depth of data and have migrated many of their databases fromtape to disk storage. They have also provided electronic specificationinterfaces to their large customers to perform online counts. The methodof performing these counts is usually from pre-stored geography summarytables. This method works well as long as the number combinations ofgeography and selecting or screening data is restricted to a finitenumber of permutations. However, the nearly infinite number of possiblepermutations using geography definitions of any area of any size andshape as well as product scores on thousands of products that areGeography, Household and Individual (GHI) data dependent, which requirereal-time computation, makes this method of pre-stored tablesimpractical.

Currently, there are web sites that provide some type of Internet baseddirect marketing list definition, ordering and delivery. However, noneof the following Web sites: DataByAcxiom.com; InfoUSA.com;MyProspects.com; QMSoft.com; ThinkDirectMarketing.com; Ira-OnDemand.comor ListsNow.com provide anything close to the meeting the currentindustry needs. None of the above Web sites provide a mapping interfaceto provide an easy way to define and process custom geographic areas ofany size or shape. None of the above web sites provide a way for scoringindividual records in a list based on the consumption of a specificproduct or service. None of the web sites provide results in real-timeand pushes the results to a user-specified node. None of the web sitesprovide a way to store a customized service area around a set of storesand permit the user to go back at a later time and generate a fresh newlist for a selected set of stores without having to re-specify theservice location geographic area and select criteria.

There is currently a definite need in the industry to provide a nearly100% contactable, multi-application list in a real-time environment overa network. More specifically, there is a need for a user, using aninteractive detailed street map as a reference, to easily specify ageographically defined trade area of any size or shape, select aconsumption score above a cutoff value from a database containingseveral thousand product/services scores, select from a rich list ofadditional data from which they want to select or append, and have theresultant list returned to a network node of their choice within a fewseconds after they approve the specifications, counts, and costs. Inaddition, there is a need for a multi-location user that does a monthlydirect marketing campaign like a pizza chain doing a direct mailingaround their stores, to define their polygon service areas using theabove tools and save their select, append and geographic definitions.For their periodic mailing, they could generate a new fresh list foreach store by simply selecting the store's saved mail specificationrecord of the stores for which they want to do the mailing.

Such a system would allow the user to interface to the real-time contactlist system over a secure public network with either a browser or acustomized applet embedded into another application running on a clientdevice.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In one aspect of the invention, there is a computerized real-time,interactive method of building a list of contact records based onselected criteria, the method comprising obtaining a geographic areadefinition, a classification and a threshold value associated with theclassification, generating a search geography code list of geographycodes based on the geographic area definition, determining a selectedset of records in a list database based on the geography codes in thesearch geography code list, identifying a spatial coordinate and asocioeconomic code corresponding to a sub-geography code for each recordin the selected set of records, identifying a classification score foreach record in the selected set of records based on the socio-economiccode, and determining identified records in the selected set of recordsbased on a comparison of the classification score with the thresholdvalue and if the spatial coordinate associated with the record islocated within the geographic area definition.

In another aspect of the invention, there is a real-time, interactivemethod of building a contact list based on selected criteria, the methodcomprising permitting a user to interactively generate a listspecification in real-time, transmitting the list specification over anetwork to a server having a memory, and building a contact list on theserver in real-time based on the list specification, wherein the contactlist comprises a plurality of records.

In another aspect of the invention, there is a real-time, interactivemethod of building a contact list based on selected criteria, the methodcomprising interactively generating a list specification in real-time,and building a contact list on a server in real-time based on the listspecification record.

In another aspect of the invention, there is a real-time, interactivemethod of building a contact list on a computer network based onselected criteria, the method comprising interactively generating a listspecification in real-time, comprising interactively specifying ageographically defined area for which a contact list is desiredincluding receiving user input, and interactively selecting a productfrom a plurality of products and a threshold score for the productincluding receiving user input; transmitting the list specification overthe computer network to a server having a memory; building the contactlist on the server in real-time based on the list specification; andtransmitting the contact list to a user-specified node on the computernetwork if one or more characteristics of the contact list are approvedby a user.

In another aspect of the invention, there is a system for interactivelygenerating a contact list in real-time based on selected criteria, thesystem comprising a server connected to a network, means forinteractively generating a list specification in real-time, means fortransmitting the list specification to the server via the network, meansfor building a contact list on the server in real-time based on the listspecification, and means for transmitting the contact list to auser-specified node on the network if one or more characteristics of thecontact list are approved by a user.

In yet another aspect of the invention, there is a computer system forinteractively building a contact list in real-time based on selectedcriteria, the system comprising a user specification process moduleconfigured to receive user input so as to interactively generate a listspecification in real-time, a geography list process module configuredto receive the list specification and to generate a list of selectedgeography codes in real-time based on the list specification, a listselect and data append process module configured to generate anintermediate list in real-time based on the list of selected geographycodes and the list specification, and a contact item lookup processmodule configured to build a contact list in real-time based on theintermediate list.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a network for interactive, on-linegeneration of contact lists of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of databases, files, or tables and listsutilized in the interactive, on-line generation of contact lists.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of a process for generating contact listscorresponding to the structures defined in FIG. 2.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of databases, files, or tables, processes andlists utilized in the interactive, on-line generation of contact lists.

FIG. 5 is a diagram representing the relationships of the structures andprocesses of FIG. 4.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart of a process for generating contact listscorresponding to the structures defined in FIGS. 4 and 5.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart of the Generate List of Latitude/Longitude Windowsfunction shown in FIG. 6.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart of the Screen and Build Raw List function shown inFIG. 6.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart of the Lookup and Build Final Contact Recordsfunction shown in FIG. 6.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart of the Synchronize Databases function shown inFIG. 8.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart of the Record Screening function shown in FIG. 8.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The following detailed description presents a description of certainspecific embodiments of the present invention. However, the presentinvention may be embodied in a multitude of different ways as definedand covered by the claims. In this description, reference is made to thedrawings wherein like parts are designated with like numeralsthroughout.

Referring to FIG. 1, an exemplary network configuration 100 used by thepresent invention will be described. A user 101 communicates with acomputing environment that may include multiple server computers or asingle server computer in a client/server relationship on a computernetwork 120, such as the Internet. In a single server configuration, aweb server 140 may include the capabilities of a production server 150,such as a contact list build server. Alternatively, the web server maycommunicate with one or more production servers, such as productionservers 150 and 152, via a local area network (LAN) or a wide areanetwork (WAN) 130. The server computers may be connected via the network130 to a network gateway 122, which provides access to the network 130via a high-speed, dedicated data circuit, for example.

In a client/server environment, the web server computer 140 includes aserver program, which communicates with one or more client interfacedevices 102–108. In one embodiment, the client devices 102–108 (whichmay be referred to as nodes) connect to the computer network 120 throughone or more Internet Service Providers (ISPs), such as ISP 110. ISPs arealso called Internet Access Providers (IAPs). The ISP 110 may provideInternet access to individual users and/or provide a direct connectionfrom a company's networks to the Internet.

The client devices may include a personal computer 102 running anapplet, such as a Java applet. Alternatively, the personal computer 102may be running a browser program such as described below. A portable ormobile computer 104 may communicate with the ISP 110 with a modem orwith a wireless connection interface device. Other client devicesinclude a Web TV device 106 or a handheld access device 108, such as apersonal digital assistant (PDA) or a mobile telephone with thecapability of Internet connectivity. For high volume users, aworkstation (or server) 112 may communicate through the ISP 110 directlyto one or more production servers 150/152 using a Remote Procedure Call(RPC) or socket interface via the Internet IP network. Alternatively, aworkstation (or server) 114 may bypass the ISP 110 by connectingdirectly to the Internet via a backbone provider, for example.Workstations 112 or 114 do not need to use the hypertext transferprotocol (HTTP) and may bypass the use of the web server 140.

Yet other hardware configurations may be used to communicate with theserver computers. If the web server computer 140 is equipped with voicerecognition or DTMF hardware, the user 101 could communicate with theserver program by use of a telephone. The server would then provideinformation to the user or receive from the user so as to interactivelygenerate a contact list via the telephone. Other connection devices forcommunicating with the server computers may include, for example, acable interface device connected to a visual display, or a satellitedish connected to a satellite receiver and a television. For convenienceof description, each of the above hardware configurations is includedwithin the definition of the client devices. Other alternative ways ofallowing communication between the user 101 and the server computers mayalso be employed.

The server computers 140, 150, 152 and the client devices 102–108 mayeach have any conventional general purpose single- or multi-chipmicroprocessor such as a Pentium® processor (e.g., Pro, II, III), an AMDPentium class or better processor, a 8051 processor, a MIPS® processor,a Sun SPARC2 or UltraSPARC2 processor, a Power PC® processor, or anALPHA® processor. In addition, the microprocessor may be anyconventional special purpose microprocessor such as a digital signalprocessor or a graphics processor. Furthermore, the server computers andthe client devices may be desktop, server, portable, hand-held, set-top,or any other desired type of configuration. Furthermore, the servercomputers and the client devices each may be used in connection withvarious operating systems such as: UNIX, LINUX, Solaris, Disk OperatingSystem (DOS), VxWorks, PalmOS, OS/2, Windows 3.X, Windows 95, Windows98, Windows CE, Windows NT, or Windows 2000.

The server computers and the client devices may each include a networkterminal equipped with a video display, keyboard and pointing device. Inone embodiment of the network configuration 100, the client devices mayinclude a network browser that is used to access the web server computer140. In one embodiment of the invention, the network browser is theInternet Explorer, licensed by Microsoft Inc. of Redmond, Wash. Thebrowser may include a graphical user interface to facilitatecommunication with the user, such as to display information to the useror request information from the user, so as to interactively generatethe contact list. In other embodiments, other user interfaces may beutilized to communicate with the user.

The user 101 at one of the client devices 102–108 may utilize thebrowser to remotely access the web server program using a keyboardand/or pointing device and a visual display, such as a monitor. It isnoted that although only several client devices are shown in FIG. 1, thenetwork configuration 100 can include hundreds of thousands, or more, ofclient computers.

The processors of the servers and/or client devices execute software andoperate on databases, files, tables, lists and the like. The softwaremay include processes, functions, procedures and the like, which may berepresented by blocks or states in the subsequent figures. The termsmodule and process are used herein to refer to software and/orprocessors operating under control of software to perform definedfunctions or tasks. The functions, processes, and so forth can bedivided or partitioned in many ways and may be performed by a processorunder control of software instructions.

The network 120 may include any type of electronically connected groupof computers including, for instance, the following networks: a virtualprivate network, a public Internet, a private Internet, a secureInternet, a private network, a public network, a value-added network, anintranet, and the like. In addition, the connectivity to the network maybe, for example, by remote dialup modem, cable modem, Digital SubscriberLine (DSL), ISDN, T1, Ethernet (IEEE 802.3), Token Ring (IEEE 802.5),Fiber Distributed Datalink Interface (FDDI) or Asynchronous TransferMode (ATM). The network 120 may connect to the client device 102, forexample, by use of a modem or by use of a network interface card thatresides in the client computer 102.

Referring to FIG. 2, a high-level block diagram 200 of the majordatabase and process components of the present invention will bedescribed. The blocks or elements of FIG. 2 may represent databases andresults such as lists or files. The blocks of subsequent figures mayalso represent processes, functions, procedures, calculations,subroutines, and the like.

Block 202 represents the results of a specification process ofspecifying the requirements for a contact list. These results arereferred to as a list specification record. In one embodiment, thisinvolves several components that fall into four primary categories:screening/selecting, appending, formatting and delivery specification.

Screening/selection can also be further divided into majorsubcategories: spatial geography, product/service consumptionvalues/scores, geography/household/individual (GHI) attributes, addresstypes and data quality. Examples of spatial geography screening areselecting records located: within an irregular shaped polygon; within adefined radial distance around a specified address, intersection,latitude and longitude defined point; or within a list of standardgeographies like zip codes, DMAs (Dominant Marketing Areas), cities,places, counties, states, NPAs (Area Codes), MCDs (Minor CivilDivisions), MSAs (Metropolitan Statistical Areas), congressionaldistricts, voting precincts, school districts, etc.

In terms of product/service consumption, there are many ways toimplement this screening and/or append feature. Note that the term“product” may be used hereafter to refer to a product, a good, aservice, or the like. The product may be identified by a classificationand may refer to a class of goods, a particular good, a specific brand,and so forth. Examples of three of the common consumption screeningmethods for consumer lists are regression models based on individual,household or geographic data; neural network models; and panelconsumption data used in conjunction with an individual, household orgeography based segmentation system. Examples of consumer segmentationsystems are MicroVision, LifeP$YCLE, PRIZM, and P$YCLE by Claritas;ACORN by CACI; The Life Style Selector by Polk; Mosaic, Insource andNiches by Experian; Solo and Portrait by TransUnion; etc. Inbusiness/government list applications, the same consumption screeningmethods apply; however, the key discriminatory data in one embodiment isa combination of SIC (Standard Industrial Classification), SOC (StandardOccupational Classification) distributions by SIC and number ofemployees at a location.

Geography/Household/Individual (GHI) screening is usually based ondemographic characteristics at one or more of the GHI levels: examplesare age, income, marital status, own/rent, gender, race, property value,age of children, presence of children, education level, occupation, ageof dwelling units in area, type of automobiles owned, boat ownership,and the AMA “do not mail to” flag, etc. Again, business/governmentscreening is usually based on some combination of SIC, SOC and number ofemployees.

Address type is obviously a function of the type of contact address:U.S. mailing address, telephone number, etc. For a U.S. mailing address,the valid USPS (United States Postal Service) address types are Firm,High-rise (Multi-unit), Single unit, RR or HC Box, PO Box and GeneralDelivery, while Telcordia currently classifies telephone phone types asPlain Old Telephone Service (POTS), pager, cellular, PCS, Mobile, MarineMobile, etc. Data quality screening relates to records that are missingsome key quality component. A non-inclusive list of examples includesrecords without a name, records with a missing address component such asapartment number or telephone numbers without an area code, records witha missing screening/append attribute component, and records that have anold confirmation date.

In general, the data that can be appended in a contact list issubstantially similar to the data that can be used to select from.However, some of the data available for selecting may be suppressed fromappending to protect consumer privacy. Application specific examplesinclude non-published telephone numbers, e-mail addresses, children'snames and ages and income. There are also behind-the-scene data elementsthat can be appended, but do not make sense to be selected in their rawform. Examples of common appended variables of this type are latitudeand longitude or other small area geographies like MCDs, census tracts,block groups or blocks, as well as the distance and direction from aretail location to a detail record's address for records that are insidea selected radius or polygon.

Formatting specifications fall into several levels or areas such asmixed case or all capital letter mailing addresses, whether the firstaddress line of a mailing address should be a single field or whetherthere should be separate fields for building number, pre-direction,street name, street type, post direction, secondary address type andsecondary address number. The next level of formatting is the file type:whether it should be a fixed field text file terminated by a WindowsCR-LF or a UNIX new line, an ASCII delimited record file, an applicationspecific file like a native Microsoft Access or Excel file or an XML(Extended Markup Language) stream, etc. The next level of formattingrelates to sending the file in raw form or compressing it with acompression utility like PKZIP.

The final level of delivery specification relates to the address towhich the list could be delivered electronically. Options include one ormore of the following: a user's browser, a file on a user's hard drive,a user's e-mail address, a third party e-mail address, IP address, URLor a FTP site. The above are all classified as “put” options. There arealso “pull” options where, upon list completion, a notification processe-mails the file, statistics and costs to an e-mail address thatincludes the FTP site and password from which the full list can beretrieved.

Databases 210 include the data sets utilized by the specificationprocess to generate the list specification record 202 to provide auser-friendly environment for specification. The data sets contain alist of geography types with each geography type containing a list ofgeographies identified by both a code and a name. Examples of thegeography types are listed in the section related to the record 202above. For example, there are 3141 counties in the United States and thecounty list contains the counties in alphabetic name order by state. Inone embodiment, the code is the FIPS (Federal Information ProcessingStandard) 2-digit state code followed by the 3-digit county code. Forexample, San Diego County, Calif. has a FIPS code of 06073.

When a custom geography is required, databases 210 fulfill thisrequirement for record 202 with detail street mapping and addresslatitude and longitude coding databases and database access tools. Theoriginal source of these mapping databases is usually some combinationof the 1990 Census TIGER files and the USPS AMS address-coding guide inone embodiment. These files have been either enhanced or merged andenhanced by private companies like GDT (Geographic Data Technology),Navtech, or Etak. These enhanced databases are then utilized by softwareprograms such as that from QMS (Qualitative Marketing Software), Mailerssoftware.com and Group One for address latitude and longitude coding.This kernel level address coding functionality software and data is thenembedded into map display software APIs (Application Program Interfaces)like those provided by MapQuest.com, ESRI, MapInfo and AutoCAD. Thesemapping software packages and application developer kits usually provideboth a Java and a C++ API that allows an application developer to easilydevelop both Web and non-Web applications with both a mapping andaddress to latitude and longitude geo-coding user interface. Using thesedatabases and tools, an application developer can provide a simple userinterface that provides a user the ability, for example, to type in anaddress or intersection and have a detailed street map appear on theirscreen with the entered address or intersection displayed in the centerof the map. The user can then easily enter a radius around this locationor digitize a polygon that follows boundaries like streets, rivers orrailroads.

In one embodiment, databases 210 also provide a list ofproducts/services that can be scored by the system as mentioned above.The basis for these scores, as mentioned above, may be regression-basedequations, neural network determined patterns or the integration ofpanel data from sources like MRI (MediaMark Research Inc), NPD (NationalPanel Data), Simmons, GDR Crest, etc., with a segmentation system likethe ones mentioned above. In addition to product scores, databases 210also provide a data dictionary that can be used by the application as away of showing the user what data items are available for list selectand append.

A list, such as a Zip Code list, of block 204 results from anequivalency process that takes the list specification record 202 andthen uses databases 220 to build an intermediate list of linkage keys orlinkage key parent keys. For example, if the linkage key is a ZIP+6,then valid linkage parent keys could be a 5-digit zip code, a ZIP+2 or aZIP+4. The primary purpose of this process is to build a subset list ofrecords to be searched in the master database, thus eliminating recordsfrom being searched that cannot possible meet the geographic selectcriteria.

Databases 220 are a set of geography translation files that are used inbuilding the intermediate linkage key list 204. Two examples are aspatial coordinate, e.g., latitude and longitude, window to 5-digit zipcode equivalency file, and a county to 5-digit zip code equivalencyfile. Note that spatial coordinates herein include entity pairs such aslatitude and longitude, which may be interleaved as a single number. Forexample, when a user defines their geography select as a radius aroundan address or a digitized polygon around an address, there needs to be away to translate these spatial definitions into a standard set ofgeography codes to reduce the number of candidate records that must besearched in the detailed record database. In a database with 140 milliondetail records, there are approximately 43,000 5-digit zip codes. Aone-mile radius definition using the “latitude and longitude window tozip code equivalency file” will normally return a list of one to three5-digit zip codes to search. This makes a search improvement of over10,000 times when compared to searching all detail records in 43,000 zipcodes sequentially, or using a secondary index and having to make manythousands of random disk accesses using convention relational databaseswith secondary indexes. The same type of search efficiency improvementcan also be done for the county to zip code equivalency file mentionedabove. The equivalency files are used to keep the detailed master recordfile in only one sequence so as to be able to process it in relativelysmall sequential, discrete disk or memory blocks by translating allgeographic definitions to one common geographic definition consistentwith the order of the detail record master databases.

A list of block 206 results from a select and append process that usesthe linkage key list or parent linkage key list of block 204 inconjunction with other specification parameters originally defined inblock 202 and inherited by block 204 to efficiently access databases230. The select and append process then builds a raw list of all recordsthat pass the specified selection criteria and appends all selected dataitems to each passing record. The process to generate the raw list 206performs precision spatial screening as it determines if a detail recordis located inside a radius or polygon or its county code matches one ofthe selected counties. Records that fail this test are not sent to theintermediate raw list file. The select and append process also screensout records that fail to pass product/service minimum/maximum scorethresholds as well as performing all other screening and appendfunctions defined above in conjunction with the record of block 202.

Databases 230 can be one database with many fields of data or multipledatabases where each database only contains a few data fields and eachdatabase can be of a different linkage key precision within the samelinkage key family. For example, in the later case, one database couldbe zip code (5-digit) based, another ZIP+4 based, another ZIP+6 basedand one could be ZIP+6 based with name pointer codes. Historically, mostdirect marketing systems used a single database with many data fields,which typically included name, contact addresses (USPS mailing (billingand delivery), telephone number, facsimile number, electronic-mail,etc.), product scores, demographic variables and geography codes. Thistype of single database design is simplest to implement but has majorshortcomings in terms of flexibility and processing speed. With theadvent of faster computers having more computer memory, the multipledatabase design becomes more attractive. Computer RAM (Random AccessMemory) provides approximately 10,000 times faster data access speedsthan disk drives. Based on this performance ratio, a superior design interms of processing speed and flexibility is to utilize multipleparallel linkage key sorted and indexed databases that utilize storageefficient pointers to other memory databases versus storing fullyexpanded records in a single file. For example, Frank N. Stansberry, 123N Mount Wilson Blvd Apt 1202A, Little Rock, Ark., 12345-(6789-12 can bestored in twelve binary bytes of linkage keys and pointers to othermemory resident databases. The above storage efficiency used inconjunction with parent linkage key databases, like a ZIP+4 to latitudeand longitude database, a MicroVision ZIP+4 Segment Directory and afifty segment MicroVision product score table, provides a way toefficiently determine which of the twelve-byte detailed records arelocated within the specified geography definitions, as well as todetermine which records have a high propensity to consume a specifiedproduct or service.

The multiple database design version of databases 230 also addsflexibility to the system by making each database related to all otherdatabases based on the common linkage key hierarchy, yet remainingtotally independent from one another. The following examples illustratethe flexibility and database independence of the multiple databasedesign using a single hierarchical linkage key. A linkage key to spatialcoordinate database, which may be the ZIP+4 to latitude and longitudedatabase, could be replaced with a ZIP+6 latitude and longitudedatabase; additional MicroVision Scores tables could be added withoutimpacting any existing databases; segmentation systems and theirdependent products scores tables could be interchanged; additionaldemographic variable databases could be added at any level of geographysupported by the linkage key, etc.

The records of block 208 result from a lookup process that utilizes theintermediate raw list 206 and databases 240 to generate a full name andaddress (or other contact items) record from which the process buildsthe final record containing a name and address as well as selectedappend data to the format specified by the user in the listspecification record 202. In one embodiment, the final records form amailing list. In another embodiment, fields or items other than nameand/or physical address may be utilized for the final records, and theserecords may form a contact list or other type of list. If a single orfully expanded record multiple database design was used in databases230, then the lookup process and databases 240 would not be required. Inone embodiment, the method used by the lookup process to generate fullyexpanded name and address records is extremely fast since all recordsfrom databases 240 are stored in computer memory.

The lookup process includes processes that are conceptually identicalfor expanding names and addresses. However, the address expansionprocess is a function of the contact address type and may involve a fewadditional tables. In order to simplify the description, only the nameexpansion process is discussed herein. The intermediate raw list file206 contains three pointers stored as binary numbers: a last namepointer, a first name pointer and a middle initial pointer. Thesepointer values, illustrated here as base 10 numbers, correspond to fixedsize record sequence numbers loaded in three corresponding databases.For example, if the last name pointer value is 30,111, then the lookupprocess would retrieve record 30,111 or “O'Dell” from the last namememory resident database. This same simple process is used to retrievethe first name and middle initial creating a name like “John R O'Dell”.In one embodiment, the retrieve name is in mixed case and containsspecial characters, like the apostrophe between the O and the D in“O'Dell”. By storing the last name O'Dell only once for all the hundredsof thousands of instances of the last name O'Dell, the name can bestored and retrieved in the most common and desirable format. If a userspecified to have names with all capital letters without any specialcharacters, it is a simple computer conversion to convert “O'Dell” to“ODELL”. However, if one stored the full name in databases 230 as“ODELL”, there is no standard algorithm to convert “ODELL” and likenames to the mixed case, most desirable format. This same process andprocess benefits also apply to business names as well as to the varioustypes of contact addresses.

In a USPS mailing address contact list embodiment, databases 240 arecreated from three primary public sources: The United States PostalService (USPS), The United States Census Bureau, and the National Whitepages. The USPS provides a monthly version of the AMS ZIP+4 addresscoding guide and the City State file. Using these files and indexingthem by some hierarchical geographic component level of a ZIP code, an11-digit zip code can be converted to a complete mailing address like“123 N Main St APT 3B, Portland Oreg.”. The primary source of first andlast names is that compiled by the United States Census Bureau for the1990 Census and provided as a downloadable file from their web site.These Census Bureau names have been augmented by extracting andtabulating both first and last names from the commercially availablenational white pages provided by companies like ACXIOM Corporation. Allnames over a certain frequency that can be verified as a valid name areadded to the master lists. This same process is used for compiling amaster list of business/government names. This process also provides theability to eliminate erroneous names from the master name databases andto do some error correction when the database pointers are created. Forexample, there are over 3,000 first names of “DAIVD” in the nationalwhite pages. This obvious typo is assigned the same pointer value as“David”, so even though the source was wrong, the name generated by thelookup process for this record would be “David” and not “DAIVD”. Whenthe results of the 2000 Census are made available, the new informationmay be utilized in place of the 1990 data.

In another embodiment, the records of block 208 may contain names orportions of names (e.g., first name only) and telephone numbers,facsimile numbers, electronic addresses such as e-mail addresses,network addresses, universal resource locators (URLs), Internet Protocol(IP) addresses, pager numbers or other wireless device numberscorresponding to the names instead of names and addresses. In otherembodiments, other data, such as telephone numbers, business identifierand telephone number, residence name and telephone number,electronic-mail address, IP address, URL and so forth may be listed inplace of the names and addresses.

The above description of FIG. 2 discusses one embodiment of thisinvention utilizing currently available technology. This processinvolves selecting records from a universe of over 100 million recordsand delivering, in a single network session, a multi-application contactlist containing many thousands of records with selected data appendedthat has been screened to be within a geography of any size and shapeand/or optionally screened for a propensity to consume or use a specificproduct or service. The embodiment described above uses multiple compactdatabases with pointers and a universal linkage key using a Postal11-digit zip code with name pointers, as an example, to associatematching records in different databases with different geographicalhierarchical levels of precision. With the rapid development in computermemory, processing speed, and overall computer technology, one skilledin the art may be able, at some point in the future, to accomplish theabove novel functionality using either a different universal linkage keyand/or a more classical single database design for list applicationsother than classical direct mail. For example, the linkage key could bea telephone number, census block number, network logical address like ane-mail address, network physical address like an IP address, interleavedcoordinate pair like a latitude and longitude, etc. In the case of theIP address, the ZIP+4 to lat/lon tables would be replaced with an IPaddress to current location lat/lon table and the ZIP+4 togeodemographic table would be replace by an IP address to geodemographictable. Using the above embodiment, a retailer could utilize the systemto generate a list of potential customers currently located within a twomile radius around the retailer's store that have a high propensity forpurchasing a product that the retailer just put on sale. Immediatelyupon receipt of the list, the retailer could broadcast an instantmessage to all list record addresses that have their fixed location ormobile IP device set to accept such messages. This same type of processcould be used by a public safety organization to notify a list of peopledown-wind of a toxic chemical spill, for example. One can see from theabove examples, the near instant availability of custom contact listsfor geographies of any size or shape with optional screening used inconjunction with existing list merge/purge technology and developingnetwork broadcast technologies makes many new applications possible.

The description of FIG. 2 as described above relates primarily tospecifying and generating a single, one-time list for a geography of anysize or shape. FIG. 2 also illustrates the processes used by amulti-location retailer to specify each location only once and thenperiodically generate new updated lists around each specified locationusing the saved specifications. Referring to FIG. 2, the multi-locationsprocess works as follows. For each location, the user only performs thespecification steps described above for databases 210 and record 202 andsaves the specification record to a list specification record 202 thatincludes a location name or identification (ID). In one embodiment,these individual location specification records 202 are saved on theuser's hard drive or in a password secured directory on the web server140. When the user wants to generate a new list for one or more of theserecords, they simple click on the specification record. This brings upthree options: edit, count or process without count approval. The editoption provides the user with a way to modify the specifications of arecord as described above in conjunction with databases 210/record 202,and save the new specifications. The “count” option performs thefunctions as described above in conjunction with databases 220/list 204and databases 230/list 206 and then provides the option to perform theoperations associated with databases 240 to build the final list 208.The “process without count approval” option preferably performs all thefunctions described above in conjunction with databases 220/list 204,databases 230/list 206 and databases 240/list 208 without prompting theuser for count acceptance at the end of generating the intermediate list206. Since the lists are not being processed at the user's input device,the user can select the “process without count approval” option on onelocation list specification record and then immediately click on anotherlocation specification record. This process is repeated until alldesired location specification records have been submitted for finallist processing.

Referring to FIG. 3, a high-level block diagram of the process flowcomponents of the present invention will be described. The process flowcomponents may be implemented using the configuration of hardware andsoftware elements described in conjunction with FIG. 1. State 302represents the start of a process 300 for specifying and building acontact list in real-time with interaction from a user. Process 300 doesnot show or mention any billing mechanism. Since there are numerousmethods described in the current art for billing on an account or via acredit card, these methods will not be described here, as the currentinvention does not require a novel method of billing.

State 304 represents a specification and initialization procedure. Thisprocedure involves specifying the list requirements in terms ofgeography, data and product scores to be screened on and appended,output formatting and delivery methods. This procedure of state 304 alsosets the initial list count to zero.

State 306 is an extension of state 304 and one skilled in the art couldconvert these to a single state by combining states 304 and 306. State304 relates more to a user-friendly interface specification, while state306 acts as a translator layer between the user and a computerinterface. It takes the specifications in state 304 and the user'sreal-time computer accessible files to edit and convert the userspecifications into a standard set of computer application parameters.

State 308 reads a record from the list databases 230. State 310 tests tosee if this is the last record that needs to be read from databases 230.This decision state could include a simple end of file test or a maximumtest record value to search as determined in the select and appendprocess for generating the raw list 206. If decision state 310determines the last record has been read, then process 300 continueswith step 320, or else it goes to a decision state 312. Decision state312 uses the specifications from state 306 to determine if the recordpasses or fails the various selection tests also defined in state 306.If decision state 312 fails, then process 300 returns to state 308 andreads the next record, or else if the decision state 312 passes, process300 continues to state 314. At state 314, process 300 writes anintermediate record containing the data defined in state 306. Next,process 300 continues to state 316 and adds one to the passing recordcount. Upon completing this task, process 300 returns to state 308 toread the next record from databases 230.

State 320 indicates that all required records from databases 230 havebeen read. Process 300 displays the total count of passing records andother optional information, such as count by record type and costs tothe user. Next process 300 proceeds to a decision state 322 where theuser utilizes the information provided in state 320 to determine if theywant to accept the list or not. If the list is not accepted by the userat decision state 322, then process 300 returns to state 304 and asksfor a new set of user specifications. If the list is accepted by theuser at decision state 322, process 300 moves to a process 330 to lookupand build the contact, e.g., name and address, component of the outputrecord. When computers become faster with larger amounts of memory thanthe computers available today, one skilled in the art could eliminateprocess 330 by keeping the contact items such as name and address indatabases 230 and writing the data out in state 314, thus eliminatingthe need to build the name and address in process 330. Upon completionof process 330, process 300 advances to state 332.

State 332 transmits the final list to location(s) specified by the userin state 304, such as a client machine or node, and/or to a fulfillmentorganization. The methods of moving data from one machine to another ina network are well known in the current art and the current inventiondoes not require a novel method of performing this task. Upon completionof state 332, process 300 has completed the task of specifying andbuilding a single contact list in real-time. The recipient of the finalcontact list may transmit or broadcast/multicast, in real-time, amessage to electronic addresses listed in the final contact list. Themessage may be an e-mail message optionally containing a link to a website on the Internet, for example. The recipient may be restricted toone of various usage levels for the contact list, such as read-onlyusage, one-time usage, or unlimited usage, which may be dependent onuser billing.

Upon completion of state 332, process 300 moves to a decision state 334to see if the user desires to specify and build another list. If theuser answers yes, then process 300 returns to state 304 to begin again,or else if the user answers no, process 300 completes at an end state336.

Referring to FIG. 4, a mid-level block diagram 400 of the generalimplementation of database and process components will be described.FIG. 4 shows a more specific implementation than shown in FIG. 2. Forsimplicity of user understanding and to provide a user the ability toanonymously specify a custom list and see the cost before actuallyidentifying themselves and purchasing, FIG. 4 is divided into fourprocess modules. The modules include software that may perform aprocess, function, subroutine, calculation, procedure, steps executed bya computer, and so forth. The four modules are one exemplary way topartition the process flow of FIG. 3.

The first processing module is a User Specification Process module 450.Process module 450 provides a user with a simple and easy to use userinterface that allows them to specify their list requirements. The datarequired for this specification is stored in the network databases 210and the final set of specifications are written to the ListSpecification Record 202.

In one embodiment, the geography component of the specification forcustom geographies, like radii around an address, intersection, orlandmark and custom defined polygon areas (such as by using latitude andlongitude vertices), may be defined by a mapping user interface thatworks over a network. A preferred mapping interface is the MapQuestmapping client/server software API that uses current GDT street andboundary files and QMS address standardization software. Standardgeographies like ZIP codes, Counties, Cities, and so forth may either beselected from a map or from a named list either individually or as agroup. For example, one could select the entire U.S. as a geography byselecting either Counties or ZIP codes, and could select all counties orZIP codes by simply clicking on a “select all” option. A source for thegeography named lists is Claritas Corporation.

A source for the product scores data component of the specification isalso Claritas Corporation. Claritas currently provides MicroVisionproduct scores for over 2000 products and services. Claritas can alsobuild custom products and service MicroVision geo-demographic profilesusing customer data. For easy specification, the profiles are groupedinto meaningful categories, sub-categories and then into individualproduct or service profiles.

A source for the consumer demographic portion of the specification isACXIOM Corporation. ACXIOM maintains a household and individual recorddatabase that contains demographic variables like presence of child orvarious ages, estimated household income, own or rent, length of time ataddress, etc. as well as individual characteristics like date of birth,gender and marital status, etc. A source of business and governmentdemographic data is Claritas. Their Business Facts product has SIC, SOCdistributions, number of employees and sales volumes for about 10million business locations.

A second processing module is a Geography List Build Process module 460.Process module 460 reads the geographic segment portion of specificationrecord 202 and uses the equivalency files 420 to create a List ofSelected Search Geography Codes 404. A pre-existing geography codesystem is the Zip code system, which has several components or levels ofhierarchy. Thus, the List of Selected Search Geography Codes 404 may bea Zip code list. There are two sources for the equivalency files thatare geography dependent. For geographies that are contained in the USPSCity/State file and/or the USPS ZIP+4 files, the USPS is a source of rawdata from which the equivalency files 420 for these geographies can bebuilt. For all other geographies, Claritas has created files in thisformat. Databases 220/list 204 in FIG. 2 are functionally similar todatabases 420/list 404 in FIG. 4. Therefore, the information related tothese databases/lists in the description of FIG. 2 also applies here.

A third processing module is the Individual List Select and Data AppendProcess module 470. Process module 470 does the following:

-   -   (1) Reads the List Specification Record 202 and the List of        Selected Geography Codes 404 (e.g., Zip list) and determines        which detailed databases 430 are required to fulfil the list        requirements specified in Specification Record 202.    -   (2) Loops through the list of ZIP codes in the ZIP List 404 and        for each ZIP code, reads in parallel all the records within the        current ZIP code in the required detailed databases to determine        which records pass all the specified screening criteria. Then        retrieves or calculates all specified items to be appended,        writes out an Intermediate Selected Raw List record to file        206/406 and increments the list record counters.

Upon completion of the two tasks above, the process module 470 presentscontact list characteristics to the user, which in one embodimentinclude the list specification, the record counts and the costs of thespecified list. The process module 470 then provides the option toeither continue and purchase the list, or discard the current list andreturn to the specification module 450 and re-specify the list. In oneembodiment, the user approves all the characteristics of the currentlist before purchasing the list, although the user can purchase the listby approving one or more or a set of the characteristics, if so desired.

In terms of databases 430, there are multiple database types. A name andaddress pointer list database is a multi-source PrecisionList.comcompiled database. GDT is a source of a ZIP+4 to Latitude/Longitude(Lat/Lon) file. Claritas is a source for a Geo-Demographic Directory fora Geo-Demographic system (known as MicroVision) with its productprofiles tables. ACXIOM is a consumer household and individualdemographics database provider. Claritas is a business and governmentlocation demographics database provider. A ZIP Index database is builtby PrecisionList.com from the individual databases listed above.Databases 230/list 206 in FIG. 2 are functionally similar to databases430/list 406 in FIG. 4. Therefore, the information related to thesedatabases/lists in the description of FIG. 2 also applies here.

The fourth and last processing module in FIG. 4 is the Contact ItemLookup Process module 480. In one embodiment, the process module 480does the following:

-   -   (1) Reads the records in the Intermediate Raw List 406, looks up        the corresponding names and addresses (or other items in other        embodiments) in database 440, formats the output record        according to the specifications in record 202 and writes the        final formatted output record to the Final List file 408.    -   (2) Upon completing the Final List file 408, process module 480        either delivers file 408 to the location specified in record 202        or notifies the user and/or third party as to where to obtain        (e.g., download) the file 408.

A source of the ZIP+4 Coding Guide and the ZIP to City/State tables isthe USPS. A source of the Name files is the 1990 Census Name files thathave been enhanced with names from the National business and consumerWhite pages provided by ACXIOM. Databases 240/list 208 in FIG. 2 arefunctionally similar to databases 440/list 408 in FIG. 4. Therefore, theinformation related to these databases/list in the description of FIG. 2also applies here.

Referring to FIG. 5, an implementation of the database and processcomponents 500 of the present invention that are used to build a FinalList file 208/408 will be described. Process 450 comprises two componentmodules: 512 and 514.

Module 512 represents the process of specifying all the non-geographyrequirements for a direct marketing list. This involves severalcomponents that fall into four primary categories: screening/selecting,appending, formatting and delivery specification.

These components are described in general terms in conjunction with FIG.2. The description corresponding with FIG. 2 also presents a host ofalternative implementations. The following description of FIG. 5revolves around using MicroVision geo-demographic data as a specificexample for scoring, selecting on and/or appending specific productscoring consumption data to a list record. One skilled in the art couldeasily substitute a regression method or some other type of individual,household, business or small geography real-time segmentation scoringsystem.

Module 512 starts by displaying a list of products/services from whichthe user can select to either screen on or append. Theseproducts/services have supporting profiles stored in databases 502 a,502 b, 502 c . . . to 502 n, etc., where information corresponding toone product/service is stored per database, in one embodiment.Presently, with MicroVision there are current profiles for over 2,000products and services. In one embodiment, as shown in the databases 502,each of these profiles is stored in a MicroVision Profile (MVP) filethat contains, for each of the fifty MicroVision segments, a segmentnumber, base count, sample count and a consumption value. Otherembodiments may have a different number of segments, for example. Notall profiles have a consumption value.

A segment is a group, where members of the same group are similar interms of age, income, race, housing type and other social/economiccharacteristics. In terms of these group identification factors, thevariation in characteristics between groups is much greater than thevariation within groups. This intra-group consistency and inter-groupvariation is what makes segmentation systems discriminate across avariety of product and service usage and consumption patterns. In termsof a national, randomly distributed consumer panel of say 50,000members, each of the panel members is classified into a single segment.The total count of panel members by segment is termed the base count.For a specific product, like current owners of a Certificate of Deposit(CD), the total by segment of members owning a CD is termed the samplecount, while the average dollar amount of CD's owned per sample segmentmember is termed the segment consumption value.

Using at least one of the base count, sample count and consumption valueas input, there are several different methods or equations that may beused to calculate a segment score. One equation for determining a scoreor index, the segment index score, is described below.

An individual segment index score (relative to an average score of 100)is determined by dividing the sample segment proportion by the basesegment proportion and multiplying the result by one hundred. Both thebase and sample segment proportions are determined by summing thesegment counts independently for both the base and sample columns to geta total base and sample count. The sample and base segment proportionsare then determined by dividing the individual segments counts in eachcolumn by their respective column total count. The score from thismethod results in an index based around 100, where 100 is average, whilea segment score that is 200 is twice the average. The segment scores forthe selected product(s) are stored in a product score table 504. Table504 shows only a single product/service score for simplicity ofillustration. However, multiple or a weighted combination of productscores could easily be supported.

One embodiment utilizes the MicroVision Geodemographic system. TheClaritas Infomark User's Guide and Reference Manuals describe theMicroVision segments, base counts, sample counts, and consumption valuesin detail for various panel data sets. The Guide and Manuals alsodescribe the various equations or methods that can be used to performvarious mathematical computations of these values to generate varioustypes of segment scores and indices. These manuals are herebyincorporated by reference. There are many other types of non-geographyselects and appends and other specifications, like output formats andlocation, that are supported by module 512 and are well known in thedirect marketing industry. Additional data that is available forselecting and appending is listed in a demographic attribute dictionary,which is a database 503. Most of these other types of generaldemographic selects and appends were previously described in the generaldescription of FIG. 2 and will not be described again here.

Module 514 is the geography analog of module 512. Module 514 provides away of defining a geography from which the list is to be extracted.There are basically two ways to specify geography at module 514: (1) viaa spatial definition like a radius around an address/intersection or anirregular shaped polygon defined by coordinate vertices or (2) via ageography code or geography name. In one embodiment, a map is a basicrequirement in order to easily define and validate geographiesspatially. It is possible to accomplish this task without a map, but itmay be much more difficult and may be prone to several types of errors.One embodiment uses mapping server software from MapQuest withunderlying cartographic databases 506 and software from GDT and QMS.This software and the underlying databases 506 provide the tools todesign a basic user interface that provides a way for a user to provide,e.g., type in, an address/intersection/landmark and see it plotted on adetailed street map. The user can then either define a radius ordigitize a polygon service area around this visually verified point. Itis also desirable to spatially define the following using a mappinginterface: rings, quadrants, multiple non-contiguous polygons, polygonswith holes or donuts, as well as definitions, like corridors, e.g., allrecords within 0.25 miles of a highway between points A and B.

Geography specification or definition in module 514 using codes andnames is done using a geography name database 508, which contains a listof geography names and/or codes. Optionally, using the map database 506,a browser window may display these geographic areas as polygons withlabels. In most cases, the list is preferred, as most people know thegeography name they want, like San Diego, or the code, like zip code92130. Module 514 provides the ability to select multiple geographies,like five zip codes, or geographies of different types, like a countyplus two zip codes. It is also provides the ability to define ageography where a user specifies a geography, like a county butexcluding two specific zip codes.

Upon completing both modules 512 and 514, process 500 proceeds to writethe specification record 202. In one embodiment, this record containsall the user specifications for the list. There are numerous ways tostore this information in the specification record 202. It is alsopossible to store these specifications in memory and not physicallywrite out a file. If the records are not at some point written to disk,then the multi-unit retailer option described in conjunction with FIG. 2may not be possible.

Next process 500 continues at process 460 and reads the listspecification record 202. In one embodiment, process 460 builds a listof 5-digit zip codes to be searched. One embodiment for doing thisutilizes geography (e.g., zip) equivalency files 516 to 526. Thegeography equivalency files may include a Zip file 516, a Lat/LonWindows file 518, a DMA file 520, a MSA file 522, a State/County file524, and a City file 526. In general, each of these equivalency fileshas a set of records, where each record has a code or an identifierfield and a 5-digit zip code field, for example. The zip file 516 has a5-digit zip code and a 5-digit zip code, or a 5-digit zip code name likeSan Diego, Calif. and a 5-digit zip code. This file provides a way tospecify zip codes using a one to one equivalency file without having tocreate a different form of specification for a ZIP Code geography list.This is also the preferred selection method for having the geography bethe entire United States, which is done by pressing the “select all”option after selecting the ZIP code geography list.

In one embodiment, the 5-digit zip code is the base geography because itis the native geography for the mailing industry. Based on the geographycodes or spatial definitions read from record 202, process 460 reads theappropriate equivalency files and builds an intermediate list of all5-digit zip codes satisfying the geography codes or spatial definitions.Before writing this list to a zip list file 404, process 460 orders thelist in 5-digit zip code order and removes duplicate entries from thelist. The spatially defined geographies, e.g., radii and polygons, use aspecial equivalence file called the latitude and longitude zip windowsfile 518. The building of this zip windows file and the technique fordetermining which windows are overlapped by a spatially definedgeography are described in detail in Applicant's issued patent, U.S.Pat. No. 5,956,397, which is hereby incorporated by reference.

At the completion of building the zip list file 404, process 500proceeds to process 470, which builds an intermediate list or file206/406 of all selected records and provides counts (e.g., the totalnumber of selected records) to the user. Process 470 first reads thelist specification record 202 and the zip list file 404. If aproduct/service profile is specified, process 470 reads the specifiedproduct/service profile database 502 and builds a product scores table504 for the specified product/service, as described above. Next, process470 begins to loop through the zip codes read from zip list 404. Foreach zip in the zip list, process 470 looks up the zip pointers in ageography (e.g., zip) index table 530 for the start of the zip code datain databases 540 to 546 which have data stored in zip code order.

In one embodiment, the zip index table 530 may have a set of recordshaving a 5-digit zip field, a Demographic Attributes pointer field, aList pointer field, a Lat/Lon pointer field and a Geo-Demographic (GD)pointer field. A Geo-Demographic Directory 540 may have a set of recordshaving the following fields: Zip+4, Segment #, and Demographic Data. AGeography (e.g., Zip+4) to Spatial Coordinate (e.g., Lat/Lon) Database542 may have a set of records having the following fields: Zip+4,Latitude, Longitude, and Flags. A List Database 544 may have a set ofrecords having the following fields: Zip+6, Last Name Code, First NameCode, Middle Initial Code, and Flags. A Demographic Attributes Database546 may have a set of records having the following fields: Zip+6, Age,Children, and Own/Rent.

Process 470 then advances to the starting or first 5-digit zip (ZIP5)pointer location as illustrated by lines 538 to 532 for each of thedatabases 540 to 546. Using the list database 544 as the driverdatabase, process 470 sequentially reads the other databases 540, 542and 546 always maintaining a matching key relationship with database544. In one embodiment, for each record in database 544, process 470uses the matching key records in the other databases to perform all thescreening criteria (i.e., determines if the record spatially lies withinthe defined polygon and has a product score for a product X above theselected screening value). If a record from database 544 passes allscreening criteria, the record and the specified append data are writtento the selected raw list file 206/406 and the selected record counts areincremented. If the record does not pass all the screening criteria, itis not written to file 206/406 and the counts are not incremented.

After completing the processing described above related to a record indatabase 544, process 470 proceeds to the next record on database 544and tests the key against the current ZIP5. If the key is in the sameZIP5, it processes the record as above. This process is repeated untilall records in the current ZIP5 in database 544 have been processed.When a record in database 544 with a new ZIP5 is read, process 470 fallsback to the ZIP5 loop and reads the next ZIP5 in the Zip list 404. Eachzip in the Zip list 404 is processed in the above manner until all zipsin the Zip list 404 have been read. After processing all ZIP5 s in Ziplist 404, process 470 has counts that it can present to the user and hascompleted generating the selected raw list file 206/406. If the userdoes not approve the counts, process 500 returns to the process module450 to start over. On the other hand, if the user approves the counts,process 500 moves to the process module 480.

Process 480 sequentially reads the Selected Raw List file 206/406 andbuilds a Final List file 208/408 that contains names and addresses inthe format specified in the List Specification record 202. Process 480is a specific embodiment of process 330 (FIG. 3). The name fields in theFinal List record 208/408 are populated by retrieving the first 572,middle 574 and last name 576 table records corresponding to the first,middle and last name codes of the Selected Raw List record 206/406 inthe corresponding First 572, Middle 574 and Last Name 576 databases.

The address fields in Final List 208/408 are populated by process 480 ina manner similar to that used for the name fields. However, the addressconstruction requires a few more tables and a little more complex logic.In general terms, process 480 uses an address coding guide such as aZIP+4 Address database 570 in conjunction with a collection ofindividual address component databases 552 to construct the firstaddress line of a mailing address. The collection of databases 552includes a Street Name database 554, a Street Address Range database556, a Street Type database 558, a Street Direction database 560, aSecondary Address Type database 562, and a Secondary Address Rangedatabase 564. In one embodiment, the databases 554, 556, 558 and 560each include a plurality of records having a code field and a fieldcorresponding to the name of the database. First, process 480 uses theZIP+4 portion of the ZIP+4 key in the Raw List file 206/406 to look upthe base record for the ZIP+4 in the ZIP+4 Address database 570 andretrieve the ZIP+4 type. In one embodiment, there are six ZIP+4 addresstypes: street, high-rise, firm, rural route, PO Box and Generaldelivery. The rules for constructing the first line address varyslightly based on the address type. The rules for constructing the mostcommon ZIP+4 address type, i.e., the street addresses, are explained indetail below. Given the street example, one skilled in the technologywould apply the method and the rules for constructing the other addresstypes.

The general method used by process 480 to construct the primary addressor building number portion of a street address is as follows. A streetrange code from database 570 is used to retrieve the low street rangevalue from the street range database 556. A street address range indatabase 556 typically has a high street range value and a low streetrange value that only differs in the last two digits, i.e., 4301 to4399. Next, the last two digits of the ZIP+6 from the Raw List file206/406 are used to replace the last two digits of the retrieved streetrange low value. Process 480 determines the street name portion of theaddress by using the name code from the Zip+4 Address database 570 toretrieve the street name from the Street Name database 554. Process 480uses this same process to retrieve the street type from the Street Typedatabase 558, and the street pre and post directions from the StreetDirection database 560. At this point, process 480 has assembled all thecomponents required to format the first line of a street address asspecified in the List Specification record 202. High-rise and firmaddress type records require process 480 to use similar logic and accessthe Secondary Address Type database 562 and the Secondary Address Rangedatabase 564 to construct a secondary address, such as “APT 4A”.

Next, process 480 uses the 5-digit zip code portion of the ZIP+6 in theSelected Raw List file 206/406 to retrieve the USPS preferred city andstate associated with the 5-digit zip code from a City/State database578. Once process 480 has completed constructing the name and addressfor each record, it writes a record to the Final List file 208/408 thatcorresponds to the specification in the List Specification record 202.Once process 480 has read all records from the Selected Raw List file206/406, constructed the name and address, reformatted the recordsaccording to the specifications from Specification record 202 andwritten the last record to file 208/408, the process 500 illustrated byFIG. 5 has completed its task of creating the Final List file 208/408.

Referring to FIG. 6, one embodiment of a list specification and creationprocess 600 will be described. Process 600 is one specificimplementation of process 300 (FIG. 3), and may be performed by themodules 450, 460, 470 and 480 (FIG. 4).

Process 600 starts at state 602 and proceeds to state 604 where theprocess allows the user to select a product or service profile from alist of profiles. State 604 also prompts the user to select aconsumption calculation method or equation from a list of methods, aprofile score screening (threshold) value and whether the score is to beappended to the selected list or only to be used for screening. Anexample of a specific equation calculation method was previouslydescribed in the previous discussion related to FIG. 5. The sampleequation described in conjunction with FIG. 5 did not use anyconsumption data. For consumption data, one of the equations is for thesample base consumption value, which is a value stored in the MVP filesand is the average consumption value for members of the segment thatconsume the product or service. Another equation is for the baseconsumption value, which is the sample consumption value multiplied bythe ratio of the sample count over the base count. The base consumptionvalue provides an expected consumption amount by segment that includesboth segment member product users and non-users. Both the sample andbase segment consumption amounts may be transformed into index values bysimply dividing the segment sample and base consumption values by thetotal sample and base consumption values and multiplying by 100. For thepreferred Geodemographic system, MicroVision, the Claritas InfomarkUser's Guide and Reference Manuals describe in detail the variousequations or methods that can be used to perform various mathematicalcomputations to generate various types of segment scores and indices. Inaddition, these manuals discuss the advantages and disadvantages of thevarious equations for different applications and products. These manualswere previously incorporated by reference in the description of FIG. 5.Next, state 604 prompts the user to select from a list of otherscreening and append data items and values. After the user has completedthe screening and data append selections, state 604 initializes theselected record count to zero and proceeds to a decision state 606.

Decision state 606 prompts the user to select either a standardgeography or a custom geography (e.g., radius or polygon). If the userselects standard geography, process 600 proceeds to state 608. State 608first presents to the user a list of geography types like ZIP, City,County, etc. and the user selects a geography type. Once the user hasselected a geography type, state 608 presents to the user a list ofgeographies of this selected type. The user then selects the geographiesto which they desire to notify, mail or market. After completing thegeography selections at state 608, process 600 moves to state 610. State610 looks up the selected geographies on the appropriate geography tozip code equivalency file (files 516–526) and generates a deduplicated(deduped) and ordered list of zip codes 404 (FIG. 5) that aregeographically equivalent to the selected standard geographies. Uponcompleting state 610, process 600 proceeds to state 616.

Returning to state 606, if the user selected a custom geography, process600 moves to a process 612 that generates a list of lat/lon definedwindows. The process 612 is further described in conjunction with FIG.7. In one embodiment, the lat/lon defined windows are approximate sixmile square windows that have an individual identification codedetermined by the process 612 described in FIG. 7, and spatially overlapthe radii or polygon area described in FIG. 7. Once the list of lat/lonwindows has been determined by process 612, process 600 proceeds tostate 614, which is similar to state 610 for standard geographies. State614 uses the list of lat/lon windows from process 612 and generates adeduped and ordered list of zip codes 404 that potentially spatiallyoverlap the custom geography area. Upon completing state 614, process600 proceeds to state 616.

At state 616, process 600 reads the selected profile record and, basedon the method or equation, computes a score for each of the individualsegments. Examples related to various equations and calculation methodsfor determining a segment score were previously described in conjunctionwith FIG. 5 and FIG. 6 above. There are 50 segments in oneimplementation using MicroVision. These 50 scores corresponding to the50 segments are loaded into a memory table with 50 cells, where thescore for segment 1 is stored in cell 1 and the score for segment 2 isstored in cell 2, etc. After completing state 616, process 600 proceedsto a Screen and Build Raw List process 620.

Process 620 is described in general terms here and is further describedin conjunction with FIG. 8. Process 620 may be a specific embodiment ofprocess 470 (FIG. 4). Process 620 uses the Geography Code (e.g., Zip)List 404 (FIG. 5) as a source, and for each zip code in the list, usesthe pointers in the Zip index 530 (FIG. 5) to read the first record forthe current Zip in the detail files, i.e., the List Database 544, theGeo-Demographic Directory 540, the ZIP+4 to Lat/Lon Database 542 and theDemographic Attributes Database 546. Using the information for the ListSpecification Record 202 (FIG. 5), process 620 reads each record for thecurrent Zip from the List Database 544 and matching records from theother three databases 540, 542 and 546, and determines whether therecord has passed all the screening criteria. If the record fails anytest, it is not written to the Selected Raw List file 206/406 (FIG. 5),while passing records are formatted according to the specifications inthe List Specification Record 202 and written to the Selected Raw Listfile 206/406. Regardless of pass or fail, process 620 then proceeds toread the next record in the List Database 544 and repeats the processoutlined above until a Zip is encountered in the List Database 544 thatis different than the current ZIP on Zip List 404. Process 620 thenmoves to the next ZIP and performs the above procedure until all Zips onZip List 404 have been processed.

After completing process 620 as described above, where process 620 hasread and tested all candidate records within the geographic areasspecified at state 604, as well as counted the records that passed allscreening criteria, process 600 then advances to state 622. State 622presents this count of records to the user and then process 600 moves toa decision state 624 to get the user's response as to whether the countis acceptable. If the user rejects the count, process 600 moves back tostate 604. The user may reject the count, for example, because the countexceeds the number of pieces that the user has had printed for themailing. If the user accepts the count, as determined at the decisionstate 624, process 600 moves to a process 330.

Process 330 is generally described here and is further described inconjunction with FIG. 9. In one embodiment, process 330 sequentiallyreads each record in the Intermediate list 206/406 and uses the pointersin this list to retrieve the appropriate name stored in the Name tables572, 574 and 576 (FIG. 5) preferably stored in memory to retrieve a fullname. Process 330 then uses the full ZIP+6 or delivery point code (DPC)from the Raw list 206/406 to construct the street portion of a mailingaddress by accessing tables 570 and 552 preferably stored in memory.Finally, process 330 uses the 5-digit Zip Code portion of the ZIP+6 fromthe Raw List 206/406 to access the City/State database 578 to build theCity and State portion of the mailing address. Upon completion ofbuilding the name and address, process 330 writes the formatted finalrecord to the Final List file 208/408.

After process 330 operates on all records in the Intermediate list206/406, process 600 moves to state 628. At state 628, process 600downloads the Final List file 208/408 to a specified network addresssuch as a user-specified node. This user-specified node may be the samenode as the user specification node for generating the listspecification, or the nodes may be different nodes. In anotherembodiment, other ways of delivering the file are envisioned. Process600 then proceeds to decision state 630 and inquires if the user wantsto specify another list. If the user responds with “yes,” then process600 returns to state 604 to begin process 600 again, otherwise if theuser responds with “no,” process 600 advances to an end state 632.

Referring to FIG. 7, one embodiment of radius and polygon definitioncomponents of the present invention as used in the process 612 will bedescribed. Process 612 is directed to specifying the radius and polygondefinition requirements for a direct marketing list using mapping tools.Process 612 begins at a start state 702 and provides the user with amapping interface. In one embodiment, mapping software for use over anetwork is mapping software such as available from MapQuest™. Process612 then proceeds to state 704 where the mapping software prompts theuser for a location identifier. The location identifier can be anyidentifier where there is a way available for translating the identifierto a latitude and longitude coordinate. Examples of identifiers are aphone number, an address, an intersection, a DPC code, latitude andlongitude coordinates, or a landmark name like Yankee stadium. Once theuser has provided a location identifier at state 704, process 612 movesto state 706 where, in one embodiment, the mapping software translatesthe location identifier to a latitude and longitude and displays a maparound the user-specified location. The user may zoom in or out untilthe correct map scale is displayed. After the user has visually verifiedthat the location is correct, process 612 moves to state 708 and asksthe user to enter a radius or to draw a polygon trade area on the map.If the user identified a polygon trade area on the map, state 708digitizes the trade area by, in one embodiment, identifying and clickingon the map screen location of the vertices of the trade area using theleft mouse button. At the completion of state 708, process 612 moves tostate 710.

At state 710, process 612 determines the latitude and longitude extremesof the user's custom defined area and then moves to state 712. In oneembodiment, state 712 uses the extremes to build a deduplicated andordered list of one-tenth of a degree rectangular latitude and longitudespatial windows that spatially overlap the user-defined area. Theprocessing performed at states 710 and 712 is described in Applicant'sU.S. Pat. No. 5,956,397, which is hereby incorporated by reference. Uponcompleting state 712, process 612 moves to a return state 714 andreturns to process 600 (FIG. 6).

Referring to FIG. 8 (and FIG. 5), one embodiment of process 620 forreading records within selected ZIP codes contained in the ZIP List 404from databases 540, 542, 544 and 546, performing a screening function oneach read record based on specifications defined in the ListSpecification Record 202, and counting and writing passing records tothe Selected Raw List file 206/406 will be described. A preferredimplementation of FIG. 8 includes preprocessing on the databases 540,542, 544 and 546, so that database 540, 542 and 546 do not contain amatching key record that is not on database 544. Additionally, thedatabases 540, 542, 544 and 546 are sorted by a match key in descendingorder. This off-line preprocessing may be done in order to improvereal-time processing performance for this list generation application.

Process 620 begins at start state 802, moves to state 804 to read arecord on the Zip List 404 and proceeds to a decision state 806.Decision state 806 tests to see if all records have been read from theZip List 404. If all records have been read, process 620 proceeds to areturn state 808 and returns to process 600 (FIG. 6). Otherwise, process620 advances to state 810 and reads the current ZIP record in the ZipIndex File 530 to get the file offset pointers for this ZIP code intoeach of the four detailed databases 540, 542, 544 and 546, so that itcan read the first record in this ZIP code from each of the databases.In one embodiment, the following three-step process is identical for allfour databases and each will be described individually below. For theGeo-Demographic database 540, process 620 proceeds to state 812 and getsthe current zip file offset pointer for the Geo-demographic database540. Process 620 then moves to state 814 where it advances to the offsetpointer position in the Geo-Demographic Database 540 and moves to state816 where it reads the first record in the current ZIP code in theGeo-Demographic Database 540. In parallel to state 812, process 620proceeds to state 822 where it gets the current zip file offset pointerfor the ZIP+4 to Lat/Lon Database 542. Process 620 then moves to state824 where it advances to the offset pointer position in the ZIP+4 toLat/Lon Database 542 and moves to state 826 where it reads the firstrecord in the current ZIP code in the ZIP+4 to Lat/Lon Database 542. Inparallel to states 812 and 822, process 620 proceeds to state 832 whereit gets the current zip file offset pointer for the List Database 544.Process 620 then moves to state 834 where it advances to the offsetpointer position in the List Database 544 and moves to state 836 whereit reads the first record in the current ZIP code in the List Database544. In parallel to states 812, 822 and 832, process 620 proceeds tostate 842 where it gets the current zip file offset pointer for theDemographic Database 546. Process 620 then moves to state 844 where itadvances to the offset pointer position in the Demographic Database 546and moves to state 846 where it reads the first record in the currentZIP code in the Demographic Database 546. In one embodiment, the groupsof states 812–816, 822–826, 832–836 and 842–846 may each be executed bya separate thread in an operating system capable of multithreadedoperation, e.g., Windows NT and Unix. After reading the first record inthe current ZIP for all four detailed record databases 540, 542, 544 and546, process 620 moves to a Database Synchronization process 850.

The Database Synchronization process 850 ensures that the currentin-memory match keys for the supporting databases 540, 542 and 546 withtheir associated data items all match the current match key associatedwith the List Database 544, which is the driver database. Process 850will be further described in conjunction with FIG. 10. At the pointprocess 850 has synchronized the match keys in all four databases,process 620 proceeds to a Record Screening process 860. The process 860uses the information associated with the current record from thedetailed databases 540, 542, 544 and 546 and performs spatial, productscore and other screening tests as defined in the List SpecificationRecord 202. Process 860 will be further described in conjunction withFIG. 11. At the point a detail record fails any test in process 860,process 620 moves to state 868. If a record passes all tests in process860, process 620 advances to state 862.

At state 862, process 620 uses the specifications defined in the ListSpecification Record 202 in conjunction with the detailed data from thecurrent record in the detailed record databases 540, 542, 544 and 546 tobuild a memory version of the raw selected record. After building thememory version of the raw record in state 862, process 620 moves tostate 864 where it writes the raw record to disk or other form of massstorage. Next, process 620 advances to state 866 where it adds one tothe selected record count.

Process 620 then moves to state 868 where it reads the next record fromthe List Database 544. Process 620 then proceeds to a decision state870. If decision state 870 determines that the zip code of the recordjust read from database 544 is different than the current Zip in the ZIPList 404, then process 620 returns to state 804 to read the ZIP List. Ifthe last record read from the List Database 544 matches the current ZIPcode from the ZIP List 404, then decision state 870 directs process 620to move back to the Synchronize Database process 850.

Referring to FIG. 9 (and FIG. 5), one embodiment of process 330 buildingthe name and address record components of the present invention will bedescribed. In other embodiments, other contact record components arebuilt. Process 330 reads all the records of the Intermediate file(Selected Raw list) 206/406, and uses the pointers in these records tolookup and build a full name and address. Process 330 may also re-formatthe record and write out a final record that is formatted to userspecifications and contains a full name and address, in one embodiment.

Process 330 begins at start state 902 and proceeds to state 904 where itreads a record from the Intermediate list 206/406 and moves to state 906to build contact components. For example, at state 906, process 330 usesthe ZIP+6 from the read record of the list 206/406 in conjunction withmemory resident database files 570, 552 and 578 that were created fromthe USPS ZIP+4 and the City/State file so as to build a USPS CASScertified address. Upon completing state 906, process 330 moves to state908. At state 908, process 330 uses the first, middle and last namepointers from the Intermediate file 206/406 to lookup the first name inmemory table 572, the middle initial in memory table 574 and the lastname in memory table 576. Process 330 then moves to state 910 and takesthe address derived at state 906, the name derived at state 908 andother data from the current record of the Intermediate file 206/406, andcreates a new formatted record, which is written to the Final List file208/408. After writing the record, process 330 moves to a decision state912. If decision state 912 determines that there are still remainingrecords to process on Intermediate list 206/406, then process 330 movesback to state 904 to access the next record in the list. If all recordshave been read from the list 206/406, then process 330 moves to a returnstate 914 and returns to process 600 (FIG. 6).

Referring to FIG. 10 (and FIG. 5), one embodiment of the DatabaseSynchronization process 850 will be described. The DatabaseSynchronization Process 850 ensures that the current in-memory matchkeys for the supporting databases (Geo-Demographic 540, ZIP+4 to Lat/Lon542 and Demographic 546) with their associated data items all match thecurrent match key associated with the List Database 544, which is thedriver database.

Process 850 begins at start state 1002 and proceeds to state 1004 andsets current List Database ZIP+4 and ZIP+6 values as synchronizationmarks. State 1004 sets the ZIP+4 and ZIP+6 synchronization marks to thecurrent value of these two items in the current List Database 544record. Process 850 then proceeds to a decision state 1006 to determineif the current Geo-Demographic Database ZIP+4 matches the currentsynchronized List Database ZIP+4. If the two ZIP+4s do not match, thenprocess 850 proceeds to state 1008 where it reads the next record fromthe Geo-Demographic Database 540 and moves back to the decision state1006. If the two ZIP+4s match at decision state 1006, then process 850proceeds to a decision state 1010 where it compares the currentsynchronized ZIP+4 to the ZIP+4 on the current record from the ZIP+4 toLat/Lon Database 542. If the two ZIP+4s do not match, then process 850proceeds to state 1012 where it reads the next record from the ZIP+4 toLat/Lon Database 542 and moves back to the decision state 1010. If thetwo ZIP+4s match at decision state 1010, then process 850 proceeds to adecision state 1014 where it compares the current synchronized ZIP+6 tothe ZIP+6 on the current record of the Demographic Database 546. If thetwo ZIP+6s do not match, then process 850 proceeds to state 1016 whereit reads the next record from the Demographic Database 546 and movesback to the decision state 1014. If the two ZIP+6s match at decisionstate 1014, then process 850 proceeds to return state 1018 and returnsto process 620 (FIG. 8). Upon reaching return state 1018, allthree-support databases 540, 542, and 546 have been synchronized ontheir ZIP+4 or ZIP+6 match keys with the List Database 544.

Referring to FIG. 11 (and FIG. 5), one embodiment of the RecordScreening Process 860 will be described. The process 860 utilizes theinformation associated with the current record from the detaileddatabases 540, 542, 544 and 546, and performs spatial, product score andother screening tests as defined in the List Specification Record 202.

Process 860 begins at start state 1102 and moves to state 1104 toperform geography/spatial tests. One embodiment utilizes methods ofdetermining if a record with a specific coordinate, such as a latitudeand longitude coordinate, is spatially located inside or outside an areaof any size or shape that is defined by a point (with coordinates) and aradius, or a polygon defined by multiple vertices (each havingcoordinates), such as described in detail in Applicant's U.S. Pat. No.5,956,397, which is hereby incorporated by reference. Records that passthe above geography/spatial test as being inside the desired mailingarea are flagged to be passing, while records that fail the test areflagged to be failing.

In cases where the geography is a standard geography, like a county,then the upstream county to zip code equivalency file 524 provides a99+% geographic solution to this problem. If this level of accuracy isacceptable, then all records are flagged as passing thegeography/spatial tests 1104. In order to get the remaining less than 1%accuracy, the system needs to carry a county code on one of the detailedfiles. The preferred file is this case is the GDT ZIP+4 to Lat/Lon file542 as GDT provides the state and county in which each ZIP+4 is locatedand ZIP+4s do not cross county boundaries. In this case, tests 1104would have to compare the state and county code on the current record tothe list of selected state and county codes from the List SpecificationRecord 202. If the current record's state and county code is on the ListSpecification record, then the record is flagged as passing thegeography test, otherwise it is flagged as failing the geography test.

After testing and flagging a record as either passing or failing at thegeography/spatial tests 1104, process 860 moves to a decision state1106. If the current record's geography/spatial tests flag is set asfailing, process 860 sets its overall record return flag to fail andmoves to a return fail state 1108 and returns to process 620 (FIG. 8).If the current record's geography/spatial tests flag is set as passing,process 860 proceeds to state 1110 and determines a product score. Thescore for a product scoring method such as MicroVision was previouslycomputed for the product selected in the List Specification Record 202and the score for each of the fifty MicroVision segments is stored inthe Product Scores table 504. State 1110 uses the MicroVision codevalues of one to fifty associated with the current record that waspreviously read from the Geo-Demographic Directory Database 540 andlooks up this value in the Products Scores table 504 to determine theproduct score for the current record. As previously discussed, there areother methods for determining a product score that could readily beemployed by one skilled in the art, but the method described above ispreferred because of its speed, simplicity and the large number ofproducts and services that have MicroVision profiles.

After process 860 has determined a product or service score at state1110, it moves to a decision state 1112 and tests the determined scoreagainst the minimum acceptable score value from the List SpecificationRecord 202. If the score determined by state 1110 is less than theminimum score from the List Specification Record 202, then process 860sets the product score flag as failing. If the score determined by state1110 is greater than or equal to the minimum score from the ListSpecification Record 202, then process 860 sets the product score flagas passing. If no product score screening was selected by the user,state 1112 automatically sets the product score flag as passing.

If the product score flag is set as failing at decision state 1112, thenprocess 860 sets its overall record return flag to fail and moves to thereturn fail state 1108 and returns to process 620 (FIG. 8). If theproduct score flag is set as passing, then process 860 advances to state1114 to perform other screening tests. The other screening criteriaspecifications, such as name-only records, no P.O. Box or Rural routerecords, and records with an estimated household income over a selectedamount (e.g., $50,000), are retrieved from the List Specification Record202. State 1114 sets the other screening test flag value as passing andthen tests the specified screening criteria against the correspondingvalues of the current record. If the current record fails any test, theother screening test flag is set as failing.

Upon performing all other screening tests at state 1114, process 860proceeds to a decision state 1116 to determine if the current recordpasses the other screening tests. If the current record's otherscreening test flag is set as failing, process 860 sets its overallrecord return flag to fail and moves to the return fail state 1108 andreturns to process 620 (FIG. 8). If the current record's other screeningtest flag is set as passing, process 860 sets its overall record returnflag to pass, and moves to a return pass state 1118 to return to process620 (FIG. 8).

Specific blocks, sections, devices, functions and modules may have beenset forth. However, a skilled technologist will realize that there aremany ways to partition the system of the present invention, and thatthere are many parts, components, modules or functions that may besubstituted for those listed above.

While the above detailed description has shown, described, and pointedout the fundamental novel features of the invention as applied tovarious embodiments, it will be understood that various omissions andsubstitutions and changes in the form and details of the systemillustrated may be made by those skilled in the art, without departingfrom the intent of the invention.

1. A real-time, interactive method of building a contact list on acomputer network based on selected criteria, the method comprising:interactively generating a list specification in real-time, comprisinginteractively specifying on a server a geographically defined area forwhich a contact list is desired including receiving user input via auser device in communication with the server via a network, andinteractively specifying on the server a threshold score for selectingrecords for inclusion in the contact list including receiving user inputvia the user device in communication with the server via the network;building the contact list on the server in real-time based on the listspecification; transmitting the contact list to a user-specified node onthe network if one or more characteristics of the contact list areapproved by the user; and wherein the characteristics of the contactlist include a number of records on the contact list, the listspecification for the contact list, and a cost of the contact list. 2.The method defined in claim 1, wherein interactively generating a listspecification in real-time further comprises interactively selectingadditional data from a list of data appendable to the contact list. 3.The method defined in claim 1, additionally comprising: storing the listspecification in a memory; and rebuilding the contact list at apredetermined future time based on the stored list specification.
 4. Themethod defined in claim 3, wherein the stored list specificationcorresponds to a selected business location of a multiple locationbusiness.
 5. The method defined in claim 1, wherein building the contactlist on the server in real-time comprises building the contact list froma database stored in random access memory.
 6. The method defined inclaim 1, wherein the contact list comprises a plurality of records, andwherein one of the records includes at least one of the following:physical address, electronic address, telephone number, facsimilenumber, Internet Protocol address, pager number, or universal resourcelocator.
 7. The method defined in claim 1, wherein interactivelygenerating a list specification in real-time is performed on a userspecification node on the computer network.
 8. The method defined inclaim 7, wherein the user specification node and the user-specified nodeare different nodes on the computer network.
 9. The method defined inclaim 1, wherein the contact list comprises a household list, a businesslist or an individual list.
 10. The method defined in claim 1,additionally comprising transmitting a message to electronic addresseslisted in the contact list transmitted to the user-specified node. 11.The method defined in claim 1, wherein the contact list is subject toone of the following restrictions: read-only usage, one-time usage, orunlimited usage.
 12. A system for interactively generating a contactlist in real-time based on selected criteria, the system comprising: aserver connected to a network, the server having means for interactivelygenerating a list specification in real-time via a user device incommunication with the server via the network, means for transmittingthe list specification to the server via the network; means for buildinga contact list on the server in real-time based on the listspecification; means for transmitting the contact list to auser-specified node on the network if one or more characteristics of thecontact list are approved by a user; and wherein the characteristics ofthe contact list include a number of records on the contact list, thelist specification for the contact list, and a cost of the contact list.13. The system defined in claim 12, wherein the means for interactivelygenerating a list specification comprises: means for interactivelyspecifying a geographically defined area for which the contact list isdesired; and means for interactively selecting a product from aplurality of products and a threshold score for the product.
 14. Thesystem defined in claim 12, wherein the contact list comprises aplurality of records, and wherein one of the records includes at leastone of the following: physical address, electronic address, telephonenumber, facsimile number, Internet Protocol address, pager number, oruniversal resource locator.
 15. The system defined in claim 12, whereinthe means for interactively generating a list specification in real-timeincludes a user specification node on the network.
 16. The systemdefined in claim 15, wherein the user specification node and theuser-specified node are different nodes on the network.
 17. The systemdefined in claim 12, wherein the contact list comprises a householdlist, a business list or an individual list.
 18. A computer system forinteractively building a contact list in real-time based on selectedcriteria, the system comprising: a user specification process modulerunning on a server and configured to receive user input via a userdevice in communication with the server via a network so as tointeractively generate a list specification in real-time interactivelyspecifying a geographically defined area for which a contact list isdesired; a geography list process module configured to receive the listspecification and to generate a list of selected geography codes inreal-time based on the list specification; a list select and data appendprocess module configured to generate an intermediate list in real-timebased on the list of selected geography codes and the listspecification; a contact item lookup process module configured to builda contact list in real-time based on the intermediate list; and whereina server transmits the contact list to a specified network address on acommunication network if one or more characteristics of the contact listare approved by a user and wherein the characteristics of the contactlist include a number of records on the contact list, the listspecification for the contact list and a cost of the contact list. 19.The system defined in claim 18, additionally comprising a client deviceconnected to the communication network, wherein the client devicecomprises the user-specified node.
 20. The system defined in claim 18,wherein the user-specified node transmits a message to electronicaddresses on the communication network listed in the contact list. 21.The system defined in claim 18, wherein the contact list is subject toone of the following restrictions: read-only usage, one-time usage, orunlimited usage.
 22. The system defined in claim 18, wherein thegeography list process module, the list select and data append processmodule, and the contact item lookup process module are executed inreal-time on a server having a memory.
 23. The system defined in claim22, wherein the memory includes random access memory configured to storeat least one database so as to facilitate the real-time execution of theprocess modules.
 24. The system defined in claim 18, wherein the userspecification process module accesses one of a plurality ofgeo-demographic profiles and a mapping database or a geography namedatabase.
 25. The system defined in claim 18, wherein the geography listprocess module accesses a geography equivalency file.
 26. The systemdefined in claim 18, wherein the list select and data append processmodule accesses a product score table and a geography index.
 27. Thesystem defined in claim 26, wherein the list select and data appendprocess module further accesses a geo-demographic directory, a geographyto spatial coordinate database, a list database, and a demographicattributes database based on the geography index.
 28. The system definedin claim 27, wherein the spatial coordinates of the geography to spatialcoordinate database comprise interleaved latitude and longitude pairs.29. The system defined in claim 18, wherein the contact item lookupprocess module accesses an address coding guide and a name database. 30.The system defined in claim 18, wherein the geography codes are ahierarchical component of a zip code.
 31. The system defined in claim18, wherein the contact list comprises a plurality of records, andwherein one of the records includes at least one of the following:physical address, electronic address, telephone number, facsimilenumber, Internet Protocol address, pager number, network address oruniversal resource locator.
 32. The system defined in claim 18, whereinthe contact list comprises a household list, a business list or anindividual list.
 33. A real-time method of building a contact list on acomputer network based on selected criteria, the method comprising:receiving user input via a user device in communication with a servervia a network during a communication session so as to generate a listspecification in real-time, comprising receiving user input to specify ageographically defined area for which a contact list is desired, andreceiving user input to select a characteristic from a plurality ofcharacteristics and a threshold score for the characteristic; buildingthe contact list in real-time based on the list specification;transmitting the contact list to a user-specified node on the computernetwork if one or more characteristics of the contact list are approvedby a user; and wherein the characteristics of the contact list include anumber of records on the contact list, the list specification for thecontact list, and a cost of the contact list.
 34. The method defined inclaim 33, wherein receiving user input so as to generate a listspecification in real-time further comprises receiving additional datafrom a list of data appendable to the contact list.
 35. The methoddefined in claim 33, additionally comprising: storing the listspecification in a memory; and rebuilding the contact list at apredetermined future time based on the stored list specification. 36.The method defined in claim 35, wherein the stored list specificationcorresponds to a selected business location of a multiple locationbusiness.
 37. The method defined in claim 33, wherein building thecontact list on the server in real-time comprises building the contactlist from a database stored in random access memory.
 38. The methoddefined in claim 33, wherein the contact list comprises a plurality ofrecords, and wherein one of the records includes at least one of thefollowing: physical address, electronic address, telephone number,facsimile number, Internet Protocol address, pager number, or universalresource locator.
 39. The method defined in claim 33, wherein receivinguser input so as to generate a list specification in real-time isperformed on a user specification node on the computer network.
 40. Themethod defined in claim 39, wherein the user specification node and theuser-specified node are different nodes on the computer network.
 41. Themethod defined in claim 33, wherein the contact list comprises ahousehold list, a business list or an individual list.
 42. The methoddefined in claim 33, additionally comprising transmitting a message toelectronic addresses listed in the contact list transmitted to theuser-specified node.
 43. The method defined in claim 33, wherein thecontact list is subject to one of the following restrictions: read-onlyusage, one-time usage, or unlimited usage.
 44. A real-time system forbuilding a contact list based on selected criteria, the systemcomprising: means for receiving user input via a user device incommunication with a server via a network during a communication sessionso as to generate a list specification at the server in real-time,comprising means for receiving user input to specify a geographicallydefined area for which a contact list is desired, and means forreceiving user input to select a characteristic from a plurality ofcharacteristics and a threshold score for the characteristics; means forbuilding the contact list in real-time based on the list specification;means for transmitting the contact list to a user-specified node on thecomputer network if one or more characteristics of the contact list areapproved by a user; and wherein the characteristics of the contact listinclude a number of records on the contact list, the list specificationfor the contact list, and a cost of the contact list.
 45. The systemdefined in claim 44, wherein the means for receiving user input so as togenerate a list specification in real-time further comprises means forreceiving additional data from a list of data appendable to the contactlist.
 46. The system defined in claim 44, additionally comprising: meansfor storing the list specification in a memory; and means for rebuildingthe contact list at a predetermined future time based on the stored listspecification.
 47. The system defined in claim 46, wherein the storedlist specification corresponds to a selected business location of amultiple location business.
 48. The system defined in claim 44, whereinthe means for building the contact list on the server in real-timecomprises means for building the contact list from a database stored inrandom access memory.
 49. The system defined in claim 44, wherein thecontact list comprises a plurality of records, and wherein one of therecords includes at least one of the following: physical address,electronic address, telephone number, facsimile number, InternetProtocol address, pager number, or universal resource locator.
 50. Thesystem defined in claim 44, wherein the means for receiving user inputso as to generate a list specification in real-time comprises a userspecification node on the computer network.
 51. The system defined inclaim 50, wherein the user specification node and the user-specifiednode are different nodes on the computer network.
 52. The system definedin claim 44, wherein the contact list comprises a household list, abusiness list or an individual list.
 53. The system defined in claim 44,additionally comprising means for transmitting a message to electronicaddresses listed in the contact list transmitted to the user-specifiednode.
 54. The system defined in claim 44, wherein the contact list issubject to one of the following restrictions: read-only usage, one-timeusage, or unlimited usage.
 55. A real-time method of building a contactlist on a computer network based on selected criteria, the methodcomprising: receiving user input via a user device in communication witha server via a network during a communication session so as to generatea list specification in real-time, comprising receiving user input tospecify a location and radius defined area for which a contact list isdesired, and receiving user input to select a product from a pluralityof products and a threshold score for the product; transmitting the listspecification over the computer network to a server having a memory;building the contact list on the server in real-time based on the listspecification; and transmitting the contact list to a user-specifiednode on the computer network if one or more characteristics of thecontact list are approved by a user, the characteristics of the contactlist including a number of records on the contact list, the listspecification for the contact list, and a cost of the contact list. 56.The method defined in claim 55, wherein receiving user input so as togenerate a list specification in real-time further comprises receivingadditional data from a list of data appendable to the contact list. 57.The method defined in claim 55, additionally comprising: storing thelist specification in a memory; and rebuilding the contact list at apredetermined future time based on the stored list specification. 58.The method defined in claim 57, wherein the stored list specificationcorresponds to a selected business location of a multiple locationbusiness.
 59. The method defined in claim 55, wherein building thecontact list on the server in real-time comprises building the contactlist from a database stored in random access memory.
 60. The methoddefined in claim 55, wherein the contact list comprises a plurality ofrecords, and wherein one of the records includes at least one of thefollowing: physical address, electronic address, telephone number,facsimile number, Internet Protocol address, pager number, or universalresource locator.
 61. The method defined in claim 55, wherein receivinguser input so as to generate a list specification in real-time isperformed on a user specification node on the computer network.
 62. Themethod defined in claim 61, wherein the user specification node and theuser-specified node are different nodes on the computer network.
 63. Themethod defined in claim 44, wherein the contact list comprises ahousehold list, a business list or an individual list.
 64. The methoddefined in claim 55, additionally comprising transmitting a message toelectronic addresses listed in the contact list transmitted to theuser-specified node.
 65. The method defined in claim 55, wherein thecontact list is subject to one of the following restrictions: read-onlyusage, one-time usage, or unlimited usage.
 66. A real-time method ofbuilding a contact list on a computer network based on selectedcriteria, the method comprising: receiving user input via a user devicein communication with a server via a network during a communicationsession so as to generate a list specification in real-time, comprisingreceiving user input to specify a polygon defined area for which acontact list is desired, and receiving user input to select acharacteristic from a plurality of characteristics and a threshold scorefor the characteristic; transmitting the list specification over thecomputer network to a server having a memory; building the contact liston the server in real-time based on the list specification; andtransmitting the contact list to a user-specified node on the computernetwork if one or more characteristics of the contact list are approvedby a user, the characteristics of the contact list including a number ofrecords on the contact list, the list specification for the contactlist, and a cost of the contact list.
 67. The method defined in claim66, wherein receiving user input so as to generate a list specificationin real-time further comprises receiving additional data from a list ofdata appendable to the contact list.
 68. The method defined in claim 66,additionally comprising: storing the list specification in a memory; andrebuilding the contact list at a predetermined future time based on thestored list specification.
 69. The method defined in claim 68, whereinthe stored list specification corresponds to a selected businesslocation of a multiple location business.
 70. The method defined inclaim 66, wherein building the contact list on the server in real-timecomprises building the contact list from a database stored in randomaccess memory.
 71. The method defined in claim 66, wherein the contactlist comprises a plurality of records, and wherein one of the recordsincludes at least one of the following: physical address, electronicaddress, telephone number, facsimile number, Internet Protocol address,pager number, or universal resource locator.
 72. The method defined inclaim 66, wherein receiving user input so as to generate a listspecification in real-time is performed on a user specification node onthe computer network.
 73. The method defined in claim 72, wherein theuser specification node and the user-specified node are different nodeson the computer network.
 74. The method defined in claim 66, wherein thecontact list comprises a household list, a business list or anindividual list.
 75. The method defined in claim 66, additionallycomprising transmitting a message to electronic addresses listed in thecontact list transmitted to the user-specified node.
 76. The methoddefined in claim 66, wherein the contact list is subject to one of thefollowing restrictions: read-only usage, one-time usage, or unlimitedusage.